Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titans Hunt
by CloudyLight SilverNights
Summary: TTC AU. Things are changing. War is coming, I can feel it. Since last summer when we sailed the Sea of Monsters to save Camp, everyone has been on edge. I was cocky. Since learning that I was a Demigod, a part of me has always felt like I could do more than I really can. This winter I realized how wrong I was. I just wish it'd happened another way. *On Hiatus* *Being Rewritten*
1. Winter Wonderland

**Story Title:** Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titans Hunt.  
**Chapter Title:** Winter Wonderland.  
**Author:** Cloud/Silver (CloudyLights SilverNights).  
**Rating:** T  
**Series:** Percy &amp; the Olympians.  
****Word Count:**** 3, 101  
**Contains:** Some Cursing and some Violence  
**Beta:** MrsLukeCastellan.  
**Disclaimers:** I don't own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series... sad isn't it?  
**Author Note:** Alright, so after a month long Hiatus, I'm back with a (sort of, but not really) newish story! This is officially my fourth time writing this particular story, and now the last time that I will restart it. It has the same plot and characters as the original story did, only with a few new twists that I've added. Also, just like before, this story takes place in TTC, but will of course be a rewriting of it. This being said, it will stay the same as TTC for the most part, leading up until the Capture the Flag game, where I'll start making big changes. This first chapter is my own, just as a way to kick things off.

* * *

"_If it's not real you can't hold it in your hand, you can't feel it with your heart. And I won't believe it. But if it's true, you can see it with your eyes, oh even in the dark._"

"You know, you're really good at singing, Thalia." My mom commented as we left the supermarket. "A lot better than me, at least."

"It's because she likes Paramore so much." Annabeth said, smirking. "Anything besides them and she's terrible at it."

"They aren't the only band that I like." Thalia said, while my mom laughed. "I do like some other ones."

I rolled my eyes. "Lemme guess; Maroon 5?"

Thalia gave me a sour look, like she'd just downed an entire gallon of lemon juice, and then shook her head. "Their music isn't exactly…my type of music."

My mom looked at her. "Then what kind of bands do you like to listen to?"

Thalia shrugged. "I don't know. Things like…Green Day, or My Chemical Romance. Actually, not them: their newer stuff is beginning to sound like garbage."

Annabeth shrugged. "I think they sound okay."

"And this is why we can't trust Annabeth when it comes to music." Thalia said. "She has no taste in music."

I shook my head. "None at all."

"Hey!" Annabeth said, turning red. "I'm just putting out my opinion."

Thalia and I snickered a little, and Annabeth gave us a look of exasperation. She was about to say something to us, probably one of those insult-compliments that she was so fond of, only to stop when we passed by the park. A few feet in front of us a couple of teenagers, a boy and a girl, were holding hands and talking. I didn't know what it was that they were talking about, but I saw the boy, a dude with light hair and eyes, put an arm around the girls shoulder and say, "Don't worry, babe. You've got nothing to worry about. I'd just take the blame you anyways."

"You're so cheesy," she replied. They stopped walking for a moment and pecked each other on the lips, before they walked off.

I couldn't help but smile and be happy for the couple, I was just that sort of person. I looked over at my Mom and two friends to see their reactions to their intimacy. Not the sexual kind, but the way they seemed so tightly bonded. It was as if the Fates had taken their two strings and had decided, for the time being, to bind them together.

Whole my mom looked nothing but happy for them, Thalia and Annabeth's expressions were different than me and my moms. While they both looked happy for the couple, there was also a look of disappointment in their eyes. I think I knew what they were thinking. Although they might deny it, I knew that both of them harbored feelings for Luke. With Annabeth, I knew it was because Luke had been the only person with her through all of these years. But with Thalia, it was different. You see, back when it had just been the three of them on the run, Luke and Thalia and been really close. I didn't know what exactly their relationship had been, but there was no misreading the heartbreak in Thalia's eyes whenever Luke was brought up.

But I pushed these thought out of my head. The winter break wasn't a time to mull over negativity, it was meant to be fun and carefree. So far, I'd really enjoyed the school year. My school, MS-41, wasn't too bad and the teachers were pretty nice. Not only that, but even though it was a boarding school, I was allowed to go back to the apartment everyday because I lived so close to it. Plus, Chiron had managed to arrange it so that Thalia and Annabeth would be able to stay with my mom and I, since they went to an all-girls school that was fairly close to my own.

Everything was also doing pretty great outside of school too, for once. The only unfortunate event to happen had occurred about last month or so, when we'd gotten a call from Annabeth's father, Dr. Chase. Somehow, he'd managed to find out house number and had asked for Annabeth to be put on the phone. This had happened three times last month. Annabeth wouldn't tell me what it is that they'd talked about it, but each time she finished talking to her dad, Annabeth came away from the phone more upset than she'd been before.

The next month passed quickly and here we were, on winter break.

I hoped that we could go out and do some fun things, like head to a New York Rangers game or a Yankee's game. I preferred basketball over hockey because honestly...I couldn't skate. I liked basketball more than hockey, and I knew that if I worded things correctly, I'd be able to get my mom to agree to going with me. The only problem with that was to get Thalia and Annabeth interested. Once I realized that would never happen, I looked out for things that were going to happen that _they_ might like.

Then one day, Thalia came to the apartment talking about a Green Day concert that was going to happen just after Christmas, on the 29th of December. She sounded excited. Apparently the ticket prices were only like $50, which was pretty cheap for a concert in Manhattan. The only problem was that we didn't really have any money. While my mom made more than enough to pay for our food and clothes, she was also taking care of three teenagers and going to school at the same time.

With that in mind, we'd decided to look out for opportunities to get concert tickets for us.

It was mid-December when the radio station announced that they were having a contest to earn Green Day tickets to the concert at the Garden. After telling my mom about it, she'd entered her name and had managed to win. However, she forgot a few rule that we accidentally (purposely) forgot to tell her, and when we got the radio station to collect our prize, they'd refused to give them to us. After a while of pleading, Thalia had gotten angry…and well, let's just say they were still in hospital.

"Alright, that was nice to see." Thalia said. "Teen love and all that, but can we please get home before everything gets bad?"

I rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Thalia. You love ruining the fun, don't you?"

"Actually she's right." My mom said. "It's actually quite a long walk to the supermarket. If we want anything to eat for the next two weeks, we need to—"

_Crash!_

At the intersection, just a few feet away from us, two cars collided. I saw a huge dent in one of the cars. The other one was not damaged too badly. That's when things began to get a little ugly.

Both drivers got out of the car. The one who was driving the heavily damaged car glared at the other guy with such malice and malevolence that he almost seemed to be visibly seething. He began cursing at Guy Number Two with such variety that I was sure I learned at least five or six new curse words in my first language. He strung them together, somehow, and managed to make the other guy angry. Guy Number Two glared fiercely at Guy Number One and began stringing together his own collection of curse words. They fought back and forth verbally for a least half a minute.

Soon, pedestrians began to stop and watch.

It was a stupid decision.

Punches soon began to land on the two drivers. An innocent woman tried stepping in to break the fight, but Guy Number One knocked her out with one blow to the side of her head. A bunch of the adult mortals cried out in animosity. A couple men went up to the woman to drag her away from the fight. Then they went up to the fighting drivers and threatened to call the cops on them.

"Should we just leave before the police arrive?" Thalia asked.

"I don't know about you guys, but that sounds like a good idea to me," Annabeth agreed.

… … … … … … … … …

"Well, that was…something." my mom said once we got back to the apartment.

Thalia shrugged. "I've seen worse."

"I guess you have." My mom mused. She smiled. "Let me get dinner started, and then we can sit down and watch a movie. Thalia, go set the table for me. Percy, go and get Annabeth."

I nodded and walked out to the balcony where Annabeth was leaning against the railing "Hey, Annabeth?"

"Hmm?"

"My mom's getting dinner started. She wanted me to come and get you."

"Alright." she replied, absentmindedly. "Just…give me a minute."

I nodded and stepped back inside, sliding the door closed behind me. I want to stay behind and ask her what was on her mind, but things between Annabeth and I had been kinda tense lately. I didn't know what it was, but whenever I was around her for too long, I started to feel weird. It's hard to describe what exactly I felt, but the best that I could put into words was it felt like a storm of butterflies had came to life in my stomach, then spread throughout the rest of my body, before settling down in my head.

And yes, it was as painful and terrifying as you'd think.

Shaking my head, I checked in with my mom, before I went back to the living room and set everything up. I spent the next ten minutes sitting on the couch and watching the first bit of the movie before my mom and Thalia came to join me. It was another ten minutes after that before Annabeth finally came from outside. She took off her coat and boots, before taking a seat on the floor.

"Alright." she said, pulling her hair into a ponytail. "What are we doing? What are we watching?"

"Well," I said. "We're supposed to be watching a movie, but it took everybody forever to get in here, so I decided to start the movie myself. And no, I'm not going to rewind it."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Nobody was gonna ask you to rewind it Percy. This movie's kinda old; I went out with my mom to see it a couple of times."

That surprised me, so much that I had to lean forward and turn my head to look at her. You see, Thalia didn't like talking about her mom, not even if it was about little things. So the fact that she herself was the one to bring her up…well, it really surprised me. I guess Thalia realized what she did, because she suddenly got a dark look on her face and her eyes flashed, before she looked down and glared at the floor.

"Well…" my Mom said, after a few minutes of tense silence. "Have either of you three heard any new news about Camp from Chiron? Any Iris-Messages that you 'forgot' to tell me about?"

We shook our heads.

My mom nodded her head, before she looked at each of us warily. "Any dreams?"

Thalia and Annabeth shook their heads, and chorused no. I opened my mouth to do the same, when I suddenly got the most intense sense of pain that I'd ever felt. I felt my chest constrict, and I dropped to the floor crying. I closed my eyes, trying to get up, only to feel a wave of panic and fear crash down on me. Something was attack

Something inside of my head was pounding, as if something was trying to jackhammer its way out. I didn't know what was happening to me, all I knew was that I was hurting in a way that I'd never experienced before. Something inside of me was tearing, like somebody had taken a sword and slashed me open. For what reason, I don't know. All I knew at the time was that my head hurt. I didn't even notice my Mom and friends trying to help me.

After what felt like hours, but was probably only mere seconds, I'd just managed to catch my breath and stand up, when another wave of emotions crashed onto me, sending me back onto the floor. I doubled over, clutching my stomach, and started screaming. I didn't know what was happening to me, but when I squeezed my eyes shut, I felt an opening in my head and saw a blurry image, like a vision, only hazier.

When the pain finally died down and the blurry image cleared up, I saw the silhouette of a person take form. The silhouette came closer towards me, and I began to feel scared. I was about to yell out a curse or something, when the silhouette became less of a shadow and more of well, a person. It came even closer and I was details on the silhouette, and knew that it couldn't be any sort of mortal-like being. It was a Satyr.

Grover.

"Grover?" I asked. I wasn't sure if my other friends could hear me or not, but I sure as hell knew my best goat friend did.

"Percyyy!" he bleated. "Thank the gods! I've been trying to contact you for hours. We need your help at the school I'm at. Please come quick. I can't talk to you for much longer. I'm in Maine, at a school called Westover Hall. I've found demigods here and they're in severe danger. Help us!"

"Wait, did you say _demigods_, as in plural?"

But Grover didn't answer my question. "Hurry!" he called before the vision dissolved and I was thrown back into the regular world, with the most intense headache that I'd ever had.

"He's all right, guys!" Thalia called. "He was just having some sort of vision. Or at least I think he was." She turned to look at me. "You _were_ having a vision, right? Your eyes were glowing and the wind outside turned really violent, like we were having some sort of tornado. What happened to you?"

"I—I…" I trailed off, clutching my head again. "It was the link. The Empathy Link."

"Empathy link?" asked Thalia.

Then my mom burst into the room, followed by Annabeth, both of them carrying moist towels in their hands. Once they saw that I was awake, my mom dropped to my side and folded one of the towels up. "Percy! Oh my Gods, are you okay?"

I nodded. "I'm fine, Mom. It was just the empathy Link."

My Mom exhaled and nodded in understanding, but Thalia just frowned. "An Empathy Link. What the Hades is an 'Empathy Link'?"

Annabeth sighed. "Basically, an Empathy Link is a psychic connection that exists between one Satyr and another person, only instead of communicating through thoughts, the link is used through emotions. It doesn't happen a lot, but if one of the persons is powerful enough and the bond between them strong enough, then the Link is really powerful."

Thalia nodded, a weird look appearing in her eyes. "How powerful?"

"It's usually weak, not strong at all in most cases." Annabeth said. "But if the person the Satyr's linked to is really strong, like a child of the Big Three for instance, then really powerful. At least strong enough to work across across big distances, and even through dreams. For him to have used it while Percy was still conscious is really something."

"Right." my Mom said. "Now what did he want?"

I breathed in as much air as I could. With the water from the towel, my strength was coming back faster than I'm sure it would have normally, but I still weak. "He said...they were in trouble. He's in Maine...Westover Hall. Demigods, plural. We need to get there soon, he said. Tomorrow. We leave first thing tomorrow."

I breathed in heavily again.

My mom, Thalia, and Annabeth stared at me, taking in all of the information. My mom was the first to recover. "Okay, then. It seems as though we're going to need a lot of rest. Maine is like eight hours from here."

"Yeah," said Annabeth, who was the next to recover. "Ms. Sally's right. We need a lot of sleep to recoup our energy. I'm going to go to bed. Good night, Percy." She bent down and hugged me, making my face heat up even more. "Good night, Good night, Ms. Sally." She gave my mom a hug too, then grabbed Thalia and walked out.

"Goodnight, Percy." My mom replied. "I'll see you in the morning." She walked off to her bedroom slowly.

I nodded, and shut my eyes. Something told me that it was going to be the longest amount of sleep that I would be getting for a while.

* * *

**Cloud:** Well, there you have it. The first official chapter of The Titans Hunt! I already have the next ten chapters or so written out, so updates will come along steadily. Anyways, tell me what you think! My next update should be within the next two weeks, maybe shorter.


	2. Just Dance (Gonna be okay)

**Story Title:** Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titans Hunt.  
**Chapter Title:** Just Dance (Gonna be okay)  
**Author:** Cloud/Silver (CloudyLights SilverNights).  
**Rating:** T  
**Series:** Percy and the Olympians.  
****Word Count:**** 5, 336  
**Contains:** Some Cursing  
**Beta:** MrsLukeCastellan.  
**Disclaimers:** I don't own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, or any excerpts from Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.  
**Author Note:** And here we are with the second chapter! Thank you so much to everybody that reviewed and put this story on their favorites list, you have no idea how much it means to me! This chapter isn't too long, but there's a reason for that. Also, before you guys read, I feel like I should say that this isn't going to be a flat-out rewrite of The Titan's Curse. While an AU, it will take some time for me to build up to my changing point, so just bare with me.

* * *

Have you ever had one of those weird days where you're just confused? Where everything seems wrong to you and the people around you don't aren't making any sense?

That's how I was feeling the next day, where everything was tense to say the least. After a really short breakfast, we spent most of the morning packing and getting our things together. That sounds okay, right? Nothing too wrong about that.

No, the weird part was how Thalia and Annabeth avoided me the entire time, or at least that's what I think they were doing. Whenever any of us walked through the apartment and bumped into each other, they'd make up some excuse to not speak to me and just leave. The whole thing really confused me, especially when Annabeth did it. I could understand with Thalia, we weren't exactly the best of friends to begin with, but with Annabeth I couldn't help but feel a sense of betrayal. Annabeth was supposed to be my best-friend, and the fact that she was making up excuses to avoid me was almost enough to make me want to cry.

While I was angry with them at first, I eventually just shrugged it off. Girls were weird, that was a fact.

That's why I was so glad to be sitting up front while they were in the back, whispering and stealing glances at me when they thought I wasn't looking.

In case you were wondering, that was sarcasm. And if you didn't catch that, just wait until you hear about what happened during the car ride: nothing at all. Like I said, all they would do was whisper to each other about something. I saw Annabeth take some paper out of her backpack, a silver thing, and show it to Thalia, but Thalia got red in the face. Thalia looked like she was about to snap at Annabeth, but when she was me watching them, she just went silent and turned, and stared out of the winder at the snow and sleet that pounded us the entire way. After a few attempts of trying to get her attention again, Annabeth ended up doing the same, with me following along with her. Within the three hours, the car ride was almost completely filled with silence.

I say almost, because of my mom. You see while Thalia, Annabeth, and I were too nervous to talk much, my mom talks even more when she get's nervous. By the time we finally got to Westover Hall, it was night, and my Mom had Thalia and Annabeth in the backseat laughing their asses off because she'd managed to tell them every embarrassing baby story there was to tell about me.

Thalia wiped the fog of the backseat window and peered outside, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Oh yeah. This ought to be fun."

From the moment we pulled up, it was easy to tell that Westover Hall was a military-type school. The imposing building had been built from gray stone, hidden by shadows that the cold night created, making the building looked like something from a horror film. Four tall towers at every corner of the building, with plenty of small windows that looked an awful lot like arrow slits with a set of big, heavy wooden double doors. It stood on a cliff overlooking a creepy dark forest on one side, and a gray churning ocean on the ocean.

"This looks like some place that Hades would vacation at." I said, looking out the window with her.

"Yeah," she agreed.

After a few more seconds of looking at the massive building, we got out and pulled our bags out of the trunk of the car. As we getting ready to leave, my Mom pulled me back to talk to me. My mom, being her usual worrying self, had wanted to stay behind and wait for us in case anything happened, but I hadn't wanted her to. It was already bad enough that I had to have my mom drive me to my missions.

After a few minutes of snickering at me, Annabeth had reassured my mom that nothing bad would happen to me, which made my mom sigh in relief. During the couple weeks that they'd stayed with us, my mom had really gotten to know Annabeth and Thalia. She knew how smart and levelheaded Annabeth was, and knew how powerful and good a fighter Thalia was. The three of had been on missions together before, and I like to think we make a pretty good team.

"You shouldn't be so harsh to your mom, Percy." Thalia said, once my Mom drove away. "She's really great, and you're really lucky to have her."

"I know, she just smothers me sometimes, and I hate it." I said, sighing. "But what about you? Did you ever get in touch with your mom?"

I regretted asking before the words even left my mouth. In the short amount of time that I've known her, if there was one thing that I learned about Thalia, it's that she's great when it comes to giving evil looks. When she stayed with my mom and I, she wore normal clothes, so she didn't look too intimidating. But when she dressed in her normal punk outfit—a black leather jacket, black leather pants, and chain jewelery—and with those intense electric-blue eyes of hers, she was easily one of the scariest people at Camp.

Right now, the glare that she was giving me was almost enough to make me want to take it back.

"Um, let's get going." I said, looking away from her.

Annabeth nodded in agreement. "Grover and his team are probably waiting for us right now."

Thalia gave me one last glare, before she looked at the castle and shivered. "Yeah. I wonder what they found here that made him send out a distress call…especially one that knocked Percy flat on his ass."

I stared up at the dark towers of Westover Hall and sighed.

"Nothing good," I guessed. "Nothing good at all."

**_… … … … … … … … …_**

The huge wooden doors groaned open, and the three of us stepped into the entry hall in a swirl of snow and ice wind.

All I could say was, "Is this a school or a shrine to Ares and Athena?"

The inside was huge, a whole lot bigger than it looked outside and that was saying something. The walls, painted in red and gray, were lined with battle flags and weapon displays: antique pistols, antique rifles, old daggers, and a bunch of other war relics. I mean, I knew that Westover was supposed to be some sort of military school, but this was just over doing it.

'_There's something wrong about this place._' I thought. '_Something dangerous._'

With that in mind, my hand went to my pocket, where I kept my sword Anaklusmos in its hidden form as a ballpoint pen. I looked at Thalia and saw her rubbing her bracelet with her mace canister out; the hidden forms of her shield and spear, respectively.

Annabeth started to say, "I wonder where—"

The doors slammed shut behind us.

"Oo-kay." I mumbled. "That wasn't creepy at all."

I could hear music echoing from the other end of the hall. It sounded like dance music.

We stashed our overnight bags behind a pillar and started down the hall. We hadn't gone very far when footsteps echoed from our right. Out of the shadows, a man and woman stepped out to intercept us. They had short gray hair and black military-style uniforms with red trim. What seemed backwards to me was that the man was clean-shaven and the woman had a thin mustache. They both walked with the normal army-march-style as if they had their spines stretched out by Procrustes except that they were already six feet tall.

"Well?" the woman demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"Um..." I looked at my companions. I realized we hadn't really planned on how we would get _in_ to the party. We were only focusing on what Grover had told us. There were apparently two demigods that we needed to rescue. I locked eyes with Annabeth. I urged her to make up an excuse.

"Well, ma'am. Uh, you see—" she started.

"Ha!" the man snapped, which made me jump. "Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be eee-jected!"

He had an accent—French, maybe. He pronounced his J like in Jacques, He was tall, with a hawkish face. His nostrils flared when he spoke, which made it really hard not to stare up his nose, and his eyes were two different colors—one brown, one blue—like an alley cat's.

I figured that in any moment, he was going to toss the three of us into the snow, but then I met Annabeth's eyes. _Use the Mist_**(1)**, she mouthed to me. I glanced over at Thalia, and saw that she were nodding, as if she had seen Annabeth's message as well. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and concentrated on the Mist. You see, the Mist was this really powerful force. At its base, the Mist was just used to separate the Greek world from the Mortal world. But if you had training in it, the kind of training that Chiron was currently teaching to Thalia and I, then you could a whole lot more with.

For example, you could use it to mess with the minds of Mortals. I focused on the energy and clapped my hands together. At the same time, Thalia took a couple quick steps to stand next to me and snapped her fingers. The space around us rippled and a soft gust of air rushed around the hallway and through the entire building, ruffling our clothes and messing up our hair

Thalia and I shared a look, smiling triumphantly.

"But we're not visitors, sir." I said, smirking. "We got to school here. You remember us, the Jackson's?"

"I'm Thalia and this is my twin brother Percy, and our cousin Annabeth." Thalia added. "We're in the eighth grade, in your class actually."

The female teacher eyes glazed over, but the male teacher narrowed his two-colored eyes at us. He frowned at us and turned to his colleague. "Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?"

Despite the danger we were in, I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. A teacher named Got Chalk? He had to be kidding.

"Yes…I do. Perseus, Thalia, and Annabeth Jackson." The woman smiled at us, although it looked painful on her stiff face. "What are you three doing out of the gymnasium?"

Before any of us could come up with some kind of ridiculous excuse, we heard the sound of footsteps coming in our direction. Grover, my half-goat best-friend, came running around the corner, nearly crashing into a suit of armor. Trailing right behind him were two people, a boy and a girl. They both looked to be about my age; The boy had light skin like me, with platinum blond hair and sky blue eyes. The girl had darker skin, a smooth brown like Annabeth's, with curly black hair and dark brown eyes. It was Will Solace and Katie Gardner.

'_They must be Grover's team._' I thought.

"Guys!" Grover cried happily. "You made it! You—"

He stopped when they saw the teachers. "Oh, Mr. Gottschalk, Dr. Thorn! I—We, uh—"

"What is it, Mr. Underwood?" Dr. Thorn asked. He looked Grover up and down, and frowned disapprovingly. It was obvious that he detested Grover. "What do you mean 'They made it'? These students live here, along with the rest of you little ingrates."

Ms. Gottschalk sniffed. "And just what are you doing here? And with Mr. Solace and Ms. Gardner no less?"

"I—I, um…" Grover trailed off and swallowed. "Yes, sir. Of course, Dr. Thorn. I just meant, I'm so glad they made… the punch for the dance! The punch is great. And they made it!"

I bit my tongue again. That was a terrible lie, and I figured that we would've gotten in more trouble had it not been for Ms. Got-Chalk.

"Yes, the punch is excellent. Now run along, all of you. You are not to leave the gymnasium again!"

We didn't wait to be told twice. We left with a lot of "Yes, ma'ams" and "Yes, sirs" and a couple of salutes, just because it seemed like the thing to do.

Grover hustled us down the hall in the direction of the music.

Grover hurried us to a door that had GYM written on the glass. Even with my dyslexia, I could read that much.

"That was close!" Grover said. "Thank the gods you got here!"

Annabeth and Thalia both gave Grover and Will hugs, before they squealed and enveloped Katie in a massive hug, which Katie gladly returned. Rolling my eyes, I gave Will and Katie hugs of my own, and gave Grover a big high five.

I told them I it was good to see them, and I meant it. Will and Katie were among the first friends that I'd made at Camp, and Grover was my best-friend. After being away from them for so many months in the Mortal World, it was refreshing to see some familiar faces. Grover had gotten a little taller and had sprouted a few more whiskers, but otherwise he looked like he always did when he passed for human—a red cap on his curly brown hair to hide his goat horns, baggy jeans and sneakers with fake feet to hide his furry legs and hooves. He was wearing a black T-shirt that took me a few seconds to read. It said WESTOVER HALL: GRUNT. I wasn't sure whether that was, like, Grover's rank or maybe just the school motto.

"So, you guys found a half-blood here?" Thalia asked. "That's what Percy told us."

Although there were a lot of us, finding a single half-blood was still pretty rare. This year, Chiron had put the satyrs on emergency overtime and sent them all over the country, scouring schools from fourth grade through high school for possible recruits. These were desperate times. We were losing campers fast, and we needed to find and protect all the new Campers that we could.

"Not just one." Katie said. "There's two of the, twins**(2)**."

Thalia's eyebrows raised. "Twins?"

Will nodded. "Yeah, and for a couple undetermined kids, they're already pretty powerful. The first time we met them face-to-face, their aura was almost enough to make Grover stumble."

Katie nodded. "We don't know their exact parentage, but who ever their Godly Parent is, it's gotta be a First Generation Olympian**(3)**; their too strong not to be."

"And that's the problem." Grover said. "They're too powerful. We're running out of time, and we need help. Your guy's help."

I exchanged a look with Thalia and Annabeth, and asked, "Monsters?"

"One." Will said. "There used to be more, but Katie and I took care of them."

"Then why don't you just take care of the last one?" Thalia asked, frowning.

"Because he hasn't revealed himself yet." Grover said nervously. "He suspects. I don't think he's positive yet, but this is the last day of term. I'm sure he won't let them leave campus without finding out. It may be our last chance! Every time we try to get close to them, he's always there, blocking us. I don't know what to do!"

"Right." Thalia said. "Are they at the dance?"

They nodded.

"Any idea who the monster is?" I asked. "We need to know that before we make any sort of plan."

"You just met him." Grover said coming to a stop, looking at us with serious eyes. "The vice-principle, Dr. Thorn."

"Any idea what he is?" I asked, slipping my wristwatch on as we continued walking.

They shook their heads.

"None." Will said. "I just know that it won't be easy to kill him."

**_… … … … … … … … …_**

Reaching the gym, Grover hid his horns under his hat before we stepped into the loud room.

Weird thing about military schools: the kids go absolutely nuts when there's a special event and they get to be out of uniform. I guess it's because everything's so strict the rest of the time, they feel like they've got to overcompensate or something.

There were black and red balloons all over the gym floor, and guys were kicking them in each others faces, or trying to strangle each other with the crepe-paper streamers taped to the walls. Girls moved around in football huddles, the way they always do, wearing lots of makeup and spaghetti-strap tops and brightly colored pants and shoes that looked like torture devices. Every once in a while they'd surround some poor guy like a pack of piranhas, shrieking and giggling, and when they finally moved on, the guy would have ribbons in his hair and a bunch of lipstick graffiti all over his face. Some of the older guys looked more like me—uncomfortable, hanging out at the edges of the gym and trying to hide, like any minute they might have to fight for their lives.

I mentally snorted. '_Mortals. They don't know how easy they have it._'

"There they are." Grover nodded toward a couple of younger kids arguing in the bleachers. "Bianca and Nico di Angelo."

I followed his gaze. At first, I assumed that they were twins, they resembled each other to look it, but as I continued watching them, I could see that they weren't. The girl, who was obviously the older of the two, looked to be just a few inches shorter than me and wore a green baseball cap, like she was trying to hide her face. She was really pretty, I saw, with olive skin and silky dark hair. The boy, obviously her younger brother, had the same olive skin and silky hair as his sister. The boy was shuffling some deck of trading card, while his sister was scolding him about something. Every now and then, she'd look around the gym like she sensed that something was wrong.

Annabeth sighed. "Do you know the Demigods at least?"

"Not well enough." Katie answered. She ran a hand through her curly hair and sighed. "They stay together and don't talk to anybody unless they have to, especially the girl. Getting them out of here is going to be hard.

Annabeth nodded and turned to Grover. "You haven't told them, right?"

Grover shook his head. "You know how it is. That could put them in more danger. Once they realize who they are, their scent becomes stronger."

He looked at me, and I nodded. I'd never really understood what half-bloods "smell" like to monsters and satyrs, but I knew that your scent could get you killed. And the more powerful a demigod you became, the more you smelled like a monster's lunch.

"Don't look at the kids," Thalia ordered. "We have to wait for a chance to get them. We need to pretend we're not interested in them. Throw him off the scent."

"How?"

"We're a group of powerful half-bloods. Our presence should confuse him. Mingle. Act natural. Do some dancing. But keep an eye on those kids."

"Dancing?" Annabeth asked.

Thalia nodded, rolling her eyes slightly, the electric blue irises seemingly glowing. She cocked her ear to the music and made a face, her lips twisting down in a grotesque grimace. "Ugh. Who chose the Jesse McCartney?"

Grover looked hurt. "I did."

"Grover,." Thalia said, "Couldn't you have played Paramore or something?"

"Or Green Day?" I asked, looking at him. "Anything but this."

"Green who?" Grover asked, bemused. "And what's parent-more?"

"Never mind." Thalia sighs, rolling her eyes again. "You are _impossible_, Grover."

"No I'm not!" Grover says indignantly. "I'm not impossible! I'm...possible...?"

"That doesn't even make sense," Annabeth snorted. Then her gaze flitted over to Dr. Thorn, who was leaning against the wall, staring at us suspiciously, both of his eyes murderous. The blue one was leaning towards a fear-inducing iciness, while the brown one was more hostile.

Katie shuddered. "Okay, he _definitely _suspects something is up."

"Yeah." Annabeth agreed, biting her lip. "Percy, Thalia, are you guys sure that your trick with the Mist worked?"

Thalia and I shared a look, before nodding.

"Yeah, Annabeth, we did it right." Thalia said. "Both teachers are positively convinced that we are students here...though, who would want to be?"

"Apparently everyone here," I pointed out.

"It was a rhetorical question, Barnacle Boy," Thalia snapped, giving me an exasperated look. "Though somehow, I doubt you even know what that means."

I balled my fists and frowned at her. "Oh, so now you're questioning my intelligence?"

Thalia met my angry look with one of her own. "Well...do you know what it means?"

"...no..."

"I rest my case." Thalia said. "But back to the point; we need to split up and dance. Me and Percy's spell might have fooled him, but he knows that something's up."

All of us turned and glanced at Dr. Thorn, who was glaring at us. The girls shared a quick look, before Katie hurriedly left with Will, leaving Grover and I with Thalia and Annabeth. Thalia then glanced at Annabeth, before they both grabbed onto Grover's arms and said, "Let's dance."

I frowned at them and crossed my arms. "What am I, kelp?"

Thalia laughed. "Exactly."

Annabeth dragged Grover and called back to us, "Get some medical aid for me when Grover starts kicking my shins."

Thalia suddenly laughed again and shook her head, smiling.

"What?" I asked her.

She shook her head again. "Nothing, it's just funny to see two of my closest friends dancing."

Both Thalia and Annabeth had grown taller than me since last summer, which really got to me. Like I'd said before, she wasn't decked out in her usual punk gear, and was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a black sweater. She pulled her own ski cap and her hair mane of hair fell to her shoulders in a mess of waves.

"So..." I tried to break the silence, but I'm pretty sure that I made it even worse. Talking to girls wasn't really one of my strong points. "How have things been going lately?"

Thalia smirked, as if she could sense my discomfort. She opened her mouth to speak, but Annabeth suddenly appeared saying, "Dance, you guys. You look suspicious just standing there!"

Thalia and I stood awkwardly for a few seconds as we watched Annabeth try and show Grover how to slow dance. I could see that she was already regretting her choice, however, when he steps on her foot, crushing it beneath his hoof. Thalia snorted, rolling her eyes for the umpteenth time today.

Shaking my head, I looked at Thalia and then at the girls in the gym.

"So what now?" I asked, running a hand through my hair.

Thalia looked at me, her arms crossed and an expectant look on her face. "Well?"

I scratched me head. "Who should I ask?"

"You don't go to a lot of dances, do you?" Thalia laughed, making me blush.

"Not really." I shrugged, biting my lip. "Who should I ask?"

Thalia gave me a blank look, before she pointed a finger at me and sent a small jolt of electricity into my shoulder. "_Me, _Kelp Head."

I felt my eyes grow wide. "I don't dance."

"You do now." she said. "Come on."

Taking a deep breath, I took Thalia's hand and walked her onto the dance floor, where I saw the rest of our friends. I put one hand on Thalia hip, and she clasped my other hand like she was about to shock me again. Taking a deep breath, I led Thalia around the dance floor and soon began swaying to the music with her.

After a few minutes, I took her hand and spun her in a circle. Looking around, I saw yet another fell victim to the girls with lipstick and ribbons. I watched on as few couples danced around the gym trying their best to avoid the reckless boys and graffiti girls. I stepped back from Thalia a little, to take more of the scene in. I imagined I was a detective. I kept my eye on the di Angelo's, making sure to not to stare directly at them. I tried to think of who their godly parent was; however, I couldn't narrow it down. Both of them looked so familiar, almost alarmingly so. With their dark hair, they resembled the Demeter kids in Cabin Four, but their eyes were too dark.

Looking away from them, I turned back to look at Thalia. Although I wasn't too sure, she seemed like she was having a pretty good time; she had a small smile on her face, and no matter what way she moved her head, the light of the dance floor seemed to reflect right off her blue eyes, making them look even brighter than they usually did.

"What are you staring at?" Thalia demanded.

"Are you dizzy from rolling your eyes all the time?" I blurt out, without thinking.

Thalia narrowed her eyes at me. "If you don't want to find a spear up your as-" Thalia began, but I quickly tightened my hands on her hips and spun her again. "PERCY! What the Hades are you _do_-"

"_Shut up, we're supposed to be dancing_," I hissed at her. "_In case you haven't noticed, we're being watched by Dr. Thorn._"

Frowning, Thalia followed my gaze to the disguised monster and saw that he was looking at us with thinly veiled contempt. Biting her lip, Thalia nodded her head.

"Well," She said, pressing her lips together. "I suppose if we're dancing...we should do it right." Then, before I could blink, she looped her arms around my neck. When she did this, we both froze up as our faces were only inches apart, but then we both relaxed and laughed.

Smiling, I asked her, "Since when are you able to dance?"

"I'm the daughter of Zeus, this stuff is practically in my blood." Thalia said, smirking at me. Then she leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear. "Plus, I had some lessons from Chiron a month ago, before I went to stay with you and Ms. Sally."

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. "Wow, what I would have payed to have seen that."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up."

Smirking at her, I spun her in another circle, before the little "chit-chat" we had before we danced.

"You were about to say something a little bit ago." I remembered. "before Annabeth interrupted us. What was it?"

Thalia nodded. "Do you remember the care ride here, when Annabeth and I were talking in the backseat."

"Kind of." I said, shrugging my shoulder. "I know you two were talking about something, but then Annabeth pulled out some kind of pamphlet and you got mad, and stopped talking to her. What _were_ you talking about anyway?"

Thalia frowned. "Percy, do you know who Artemis is?"

The question caught me by surprise. "Yeah. She's the Goddess of the Moon and Wilderness, right?"

"Yeah," Thalia said, sighing, "but that's not her only domain. She's also the Goddess of the Hunt…and of maidens."

I nodded my head. "Yeah, okay. What about her?"

"Do you know who the Hunters of Artemis are?"

I nodded my head again. "Kind of. I know they're supposed to be this group of girls that go traveling with Artemis, like her personal Girl Scouts, but that's all I know."

"I don't really think I'm the best person to be telling you this but—" she suddenly froze mid-sentence, her eyes going wide. "They're gone!"

"What?"

"The di Angelo's they're gone."

I looked back towards the bleachers where I expected the di Angelo siblings to be, but when I looked over they were nowhere to be seen. Looking around, I noticed a figure closing a door behind him. _Dr. Thorn_, I thought bitterly.

"We need to find the others," I told Thalia. "Let them know what's happened."

* * *

**Cloud: Hey everybody! As I promised, here's the next chapter, albeit a couple days later. Like I said in my AN at the beginning of the Chapter, this story is going to be AU, but I'm taking steps to getting it there. I actually liked this chapter, mainly because I'm a big fan of Thalia and Percy's dynamic, and this chapter gave me a chance to write a nice scene between them! Although this isn't a romantic Perlia story, my days of shipping those two are over, you can definitely look out for more scenes with the two of them spending time together. **

**Anyway, time for Notes and things!**

**1) Yeah, I decided to make it so that Percy learned how to control the Mist along side Thalia. There's actually a reason for this, which you will find out later on.**

**2) Yeah, my first official change to Canon as a whole. I've seen this idea in a few PJO/HoO Fanfictions, and I'm a really big fan of it, because a lot of them tend to include them having these cool shared abilities, which is something that I may or may not put into this story.**

**3) A First Generation Olympian is exactly what the name says: Olympians of the First Generation, the Gods who whose parents were Titans. They're the oldest of the Gods, and the most powerful of them as a result.**

**That's it for right now. I'm already working on the third chapter though, which I promise will be up before the week is over, and if I really get on a roll, I'll have the fourth chapter up too! Anyways, make sure to hit the review chapter and tell me what you thought about this chapter! What did you like and dislike about it? What was your favorite part, and what part did you think I could change/build on?**


	3. Missile Launchers and Magic Hunters

**Story Title:** Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titans Hunt.  
**Chapter Title:** Missile Launchers and Magic Hunters  
**Author:** Cloud/Silver (CloudyLights SilverNights).  
**Rating:** T  
**Series:** Percy and the Olympians.  
****Word Count:**** 6, 888  
**Contains:** Violence and some Cursing  
**Beta:** MrsLukeCastellan.  
**Disclaimers:** I don't own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, or any excerpts from Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.  
**Author Note:** And here we are with the second chapter! Thank you so much to everybody that reviewed and put this story on their favorites list, you have no idea how much it means to me!

* * *

Thalia nodded and together, we bursted into a run, weaving through dancing kids like a spider weaving a web. Thalia ended splitting away from me when she ducked under the group of girls that victimized guys with lipstick graffiti, and then I could no l onger see her. I nearly crashed into a boy who looked much bigger and much older than I was. He didn't scare me, but I couldn't afford to get into any fight. When a clearing opened up between two people, I burst through that and crashed into Will and Katie, hard.

"Ow, Percy, what the Hades?!"

"They're gone!" I pant-shouted. "The di Angelo's are gone!"

There were a few mortals staring at us, but I doubted they knew what we were talking about. Will gave me a panicked look, and Katie's eyes had gotten wide with disbelief. "What are you talking about? What do you mean gone?"

I shook my head. "There isn't any time. You guys meet up with Thalia and the others, and come out the back of school. I'm going to go confront Dr. Thorn, hopefully I can hold him off long enough for you guys to get there."

"I don't like this plan, Percy." Katie said, shaking her head. "Let one of us come with you, just in case."

I shook my head again. "No, go find the others. Dr. Thorn couldn't have gone far with the di Angelo's, and it'll be faster to find them with just me."

Then, before either of them could object again, I got up and ran to the doors by the bleachers.

The door led into a dark hallway with hardly any sound in it; I was just able to make out my own footsteps. I pressed up again the wall as much as I could, trying to listen out for the di Angelo siblings. The hallway was beginning to feel endless to me, but it only a matter of seconds until I stopped short: a shadow quickly vanished from under one of the doorways as soon as I passed opposite of it.

I carried on walking for a few moments, acting as if I hadn't noticed, before I quickly doubled back, this time going to the other wall so I'd be able to hear a lot easier. I got closer to the door and heard sounds of scuffling, then a painful grunt. I thought about uncapping my sword, but hesitated. The monster could have heard me open the doors to the hallway and was just preparing for an ambush. After a moment of deciding, I uncapped Riptide and hit my stopwatch button. The watch expanded into a shield with a bunch of nice decorations on it. They were of the adventures of the Sea of Monsters.

Opening the door, I jogged down the corridor, but when I got to the other end, no one was there. I opened another and found myself back in the main entry hall. I was completely turned around. I didn't see Dr. Thorn anywhere, but there on the opposite side of the room were the di Angelo siblings. They'd pressed themselves into a corner of the room as soon as I had opened the door, the girl, Bianca, standing slightly in front of her brother.

They stood frozen in horror, staring right at me.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I spoke softly, raising my hands in front of me as if trying to calm a spooked animal. "My name's Percy. Percy Jackson."

"Who are you?" Bianca asked her voice steady, although I noticed her pushing her brother back further.

"I can't explain everything here," I slowly stepped towards the two, still speaking softly. "Dr. Thorn will be back any moment; I need to get you two out of here."

"Why?" Bianca asked sharply, standing up straighter.

"Because you're in danger."

"Why should we listen to you?" Bianca lifted her chin slightly, as if challenging me to say the wrong thing.

"Because I can protect you," I said trying to sound confident, even though I wasn't too sure at that moment.

Bianca opened her mouth, but closed it, her eyes going wide with fear and Nico gasping behind her.

That made me frown; what was wrong with them? Where was Dr. Thorn? Maybe he'd sensed the presence of Riptide and retreated. Monsters hated celestial bronze weapons.

'What's going on here?'

The answer came to just as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Whirling around, I threw my arms up, holding my shield up in front of me. Something slammed into it, but I got up. I held my sword pointed at Dr. Thorn and he growled at me. "Hey there, Doc. I hear you're not really a Doctor."

He growled and another "thing" shot from behind him. I instinctively held my shield up. When it hit my shield, I looked at it and realized it was a spike of some sort.

"I cannot be bested by a regular half-blood." Dr. Thorn snarled, which sounded weird with his accent.

"Well, it's a good thing that I'm not a regular half-blood." I said. "Now you can run away like the cowards all of you monsters are. So, what are you? An_ empousa_," I laughed.

Dr. Thorn snarled again. Another spike flew out from behind him. My shield took even more damage. Any more of the damage and my shield would be gone. Hesitantly, I tapped the back of my shield and it shrunk back down into a watch. I held Anaklusmos up, hoping that I'd be able to cut through whatever it was that he was launching at me.

Then, at a rapid fire pace, at least ten spikes flew at me. I dodged the first three by rolling to the floor, but at least two of the spikes managed to strike me. One grazed my shoulder and the other stuck through my swordhand wrist. I dropped Anaklusmos in pain.

"Not so tough are you, Mr. Jackson," he grinned. His face moved out of the shadow it was in before and I could now see his face clearly. His blue/brown eyes glinted evilly in the glow of my sword.

"You haven't even begun to see what I am capable of," I threatened, just to make him scared. The truth was that I didn't know what the hell kind of monster he was, and so I didn't know what his weakness was. I only hoped that the others had finally reached each other by now.

"All three of you will come with me," Dr. Thorn said. "Quietly. Obediently. If you make a single noise, if you call out for help or try to fight, I will show you just how accurately I can throw."

… … … … … … … … …

We stumbled out of the fire escape and into the freezing cold. The snow crunched loudly under our feet as we made our way through the quite forest. The shadows seemed to grow darker the further we went it, and eventually it became almost impossible for us to see anything.

My shoulder was sore from the spike that grazed it and I knew that the poison was taking it's effect.

"Let go of me!" Bianca hissed at me.

At some point during all of this, I had grabbed the two by their arms so that they wouldn't go wandering off in the darkness, that and I really didn't trust them not to running off. At this point I seriously doubted Dr. Thorn would be very forgiving with any of us if we tried running away, and either way, I doubted we would have gotten very far.

I snorted. "Yeah, not going to happen."

Despite how close together we were, I was having trouble seeing her face in the darkness. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me, but it was almost as if Bianca was literally inside of the shadows.

"I knew you were working for him!" she snarled.

"I'm not working for him, I'm trying to help you!" I growled. Tightening my grip on her arm, brought us to stop and ended up having Nico crash into my side. Keeping hold of him, I turned to face Bianca. "In case you haven't realized it; I'm the only thing standing between you two and him!"

Bianca scoffed. "Some job you're doing."

I was just barely able to make out her glower as she attempted to stare me down with those dark eyes of hers. Blinking, I noticed that both of them were only an inch or two shorter than me, making me even more annoyed than I already was.

"Things would be a lot better if you actually worked with me," I snapped. "Instead of just fighting me like I'm the bad guy, which I'm not!"

"Don't talk to my sister like that!" Nico said, speaking up for the first time. He turned and glared at me. "Maybe if you actually told us who you were, we'd listen to you!"

I gritted my teeth together. "I told you, I can't say that."

Nico gave me a flat look. "Why not?"

"Because you'll be in more danger than you already are!" I shouted, getting fed up that they wouldn't listen to me.

"I'd listen to Mr. Jackson if I were you, Mr. and Ms. di Angelo." his dreaded French accent drawled. "As a son of the Elder Gods, he is often prone to knowing what will happen before they truly do."

"What did you call him?" Bianca asked looking between me and Dr. Thorn, sounding a lot more than confused. "Who are you people?"

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" Dr. Thorn taunted, stepping closer to us, making the three of us back away from him.

Bianca glared at him. "Figure what out?!"

Dr. Thorn sneered at her. "I'm disappointed. I thought you were a lot smarter than this, especially you Nicholas."

"Just what do you want with them anyway?" I asked him, trying to take his attention off of Bianca and Nico as we continued to walk. "What's so special about them?"

"While I would love nothing more than to tell you, Mr. Jackson." Dr. Thorn sighed. "I'm afraid that the General has given me strict orders not tell anybody anything, especially not you."

"Who the Hell is the General?!" Bianca all but shrieked, her voice becoming shrill.

Dr. Thorn glowered at her. "He is the General, you petulant little girl. That is all you need to know."

"Don't talk to my sister like that you creepy-eyed _segaiolo_!" Nico snapped. Unlike Bianca, his words had no quiver to them and he glared at Dr. Thorn head on.

'_I have no idea what he just said, but h__e's __got__ guts,_' I thought. '_I'll give him that much._'

Dr. Thorn made a growling sound that definitely wasn't human. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, but I forced myself to keep walking and pretend I was being a good little captive.

Taking a deep breath, I focused on the desperation I was feeling and concentrated. I imagined grabbing a hold and removing them from me, and sending them towards Grover. '_Grover?_' I thought. '_Can you feel me, it's Percy. We need help man, we need it fast._'

I closed my eyes and concentrated, this time on Grover's face. I was trying to use the empathy link to my advantage. _Apples! Tin cans! Grover can you hear me? Tell Annabeth to think of a plan before you guys intrude. I might think of something. __Just get here, FAST!__'_

_"Move!" Dr. Thorn shoved me again.__ I whipped around and glared at him, but he didn't seem too fazed, amused if anything. _

_Growling, I turned back around and did as he said, making sure to keep my grip on the di Angelo's in case I needed to push them behind me. _

"Halt," Thorn said.

The woods had opened up. We'd reached a cliff overlooking the sea. At least, I sensed the sea was down there, hundreds of feet below. I could hear the waves churning and I could smell the cold salty froth. But all I could see was mist and darkness. A part of me wanted to jump off of the cliff and into the sea that I knew was waiting below. At least then I'd stand a real chance of beating Dr. Thorn.

But an even bigger part of me was so terrified of the thought of jumping from this high up, that when Dr. Thorn pushed us closer to the edge, I actually stumbled out of fear of falling off. It was only thanks to Bianca di Angelo grabbing a hold of my arm that I didn't fall flat on my face.

"Thanks," I murmured.

"Why did we stop?" Nico asked. "Why here?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Dr. Thorn assured him. "But if I were you, I'd stop walking, unless of course you'd like to fall to your deaths."

I looked over the edge once again and held my right arm down. Suddenly, a tugging feeling entered in my stomach, and I felt the force of the ocean hundreds of feet below us.

'_Come to me,_' I commanded the water. '_The son of the Sea God commands you._'

I sensed the water respond to my command and sure enough, I felt the tugging in my gut grow stronger and I knew that if I could see that far down, I would see the water moving towards me, scaling the cliff-side as if it were a sentient being.

And then, without any warning, the feeling changed.

I felt the tugging lessen somewhat as a rising sensation filled me. I still felt that water coming for me, but I could also feel a strange edge to it, as if something else had decided to come along with it. Suddenly, the wind around me picked up, making the snow swirl around me and the di Angelo twins.

I felt my eyes widen. '_No way._'

I stared at the swirl of wind and snow, squinting my eyes in concentration.

'_More._' I thought.

Almost immediately, the wind grew, becoming stronger; ruffling my hair and taking my breath away. But I could also sense that as cool as this was, the wind wouldn't be near enough to take down Dr. Thorn. I could also sense that the water I was summoning wouldn't get here fast enough either, at least not in the time that I needed.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head and I turned to look at Dr. Thorn.

"Good," Thorn said. "Follow Percy's lead you two, face me."

Thorn's two-tone eyes glittered hungrily. He pulled something from under his coat. At first I thought it was a switchblade, but it was only a phone. He pressed the side button and said, "The package—it is ready to deliver."

There was a garbled reply, and I realized Thorn was in walkie-talkie mode. For some reason, that seemed so much more horrifying and creepy: an ancient Monster with no soul using modern technology.

I glanced behind me, wondering how far the drop was and rather or not the water would catch me.

Dr. Thorn laughed. "By all means, Son of Poseidon, Jump! There is the sea. Save yourself."

"What did he call you?" Bianca muttered. "Son of who?"

"I'll explain everything later," I told her. "Promise."

Nico looked at me. "You do have a plan, right?"

'More_._' I commanded the wind. '_More, I need you._'

"Yes, Nico, I have a plan." I said exasperatedly. "A very good plan at that."

"I would kill you before you ever reached the water," Dr. Thorn said, as if attempting to read my thoughts. "You do not realize who I am, do you?"

'_True._' I thought, frowning. '_But __what if it wasn't just the water that I was using?_'

There was another flicker of movement behind him and another one of his spikes whistled so close to me that I felt a small burst of air blow my hair.

A flicker of movement behind him, and another missile whistled so close to me that it nicked my ear. Something had sprung up behind Dr. Thorn—like a catapult, but more flexible…almost like a tail.

I narrowed my eyes, frowning. Looking at the monster, I dug through my memories, remembering back to all of the classes I took back at camp and trying to find anything on mythological monsters that had spike-throwing tails. It took my a while, but when I finally figured out what he was, I nearly had a panic attack. He was a Manticore; an old creature from the East, banished to the Western World. Dr. Thorn hadn't been bluffing when he said that he'd kill me before I'd reached the water.

"Unfortunately," Thorn said, "you are wanted alive, if possible. Otherwise you would already be dead."

"Who wants us?" Bianca demanded. "Because if you think you'll get a ransom, you're wrong. We don't have any family. Nico and I…" Her voice broke a little. "We've got no one but each other."

"Aww," Dr. Thorn said. "Do not worry, little brats. You will be meeting my employer soon enough. Then you will have a brand-new family."

"Luke," I said. "You work for Luke."

Dr. Thorn's mouth twisted with distaste when I said the name of my old enemy—a former friend who'd tried to kill me several times. "You have no idea what is happening, Perseus Jackson. I will let the General enlighten you. You are going to do him a great service tonight. He is looking forward to meeting you."

"The General?" I asked. Then I realized I'd said it with a French accent. "I mean… who's the General?"

Thorn looked toward the horizon. "Ah, here we are. Your transportation."

I turned and saw a light in the distance, a searchlight over the sea. Then I heard the chopping of helicopter blades getting louder and closer.

"Where are you taking us?" Nico said.

"You should be honored, my boy. You will have the opportunity to join a great army! Just like that silly game you play with cards and dolls."

"They're not dolls! They're figurines! And you can take your great army and shove it up your—"

"Now, now," Dr. Thorn warned. "You will change your mind about joining us, my boy. And if you do not, well…there are other uses for half-bloods. We have many monstrous mouths to feed. The Great Stirring is underway."

"The Great what?" I asked. Anything to keep him talking while the wind slowly grew stronger as the water collected just below the edge of the cliff.

"The stirring of monsters." Dr. Thorn smiled evilly. "The worst of them, the most powerful, are now waking. Monsters that have not been seen in thousands of years. They will cause death and destruction the likes of which mortals have never known. And soon we shall have the most important monster of all—the one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus!"

"Oh my God." Bianca whispered, her eyes wide. "He's completely insane."

I grinned at her. "Sometimes you got to be nuts to live, Bianca."

I looked behind the manticore at saw the silhouettes of a group of people standing in the shadow of the forest. I saw the invisible footsteps of Annabeth carefully walking through the snow so that she wouldn't make too much noise. My eyes slowly followed the trail of footsteps, and when I thought it was time, I held my hand up, a signal to stop.

Luckily, Annabeth understood. She stopped. The silhouettes in the shadows of the forest moved forward, but I moved my hand slightly to stop them too. All at once, with my concentration becoming broken, the gut feeling of controlling gallons and gallons of water, as well as the slowly growing wind started becoming a little pained as I held them at will.

"What are you doing, Jackson," hissed Thorn.

"Killing you." I said, turning to the monster slowly and smirking at him. Then, before he could attack me, I shouted and made a shoving motion with my hands. The effect was instantaneous: the wind that I'd been controlling exploded between us in a burst of ice and snow. Then, before Thorn could even blink, it raced through the clearing and slammed into him, throwing him off his feet and lifting him into the air. At the same time, the water that I'd summoned exploded over the side of the cliff like a geyser. Half it wrapped around the di Angelo's and I, while the other half launched itself at Dr. Thorn, joining the wind and making a whirlwind of icy-water.

"Get back!" I yelled at the others. "Blast him!"

I could only hope they understood what I was trying to say.

I heard a shout from the trees and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standup as the air in the clearing became charged with the scent of ozone. The whirlwind suddenly grew even stronger as thunder rumbled in the sky. Seconds later, a bolt of lightning flashed in the clouds and dropped down, striking the manticore with a loud **BOOM!** Thorn dropped to the ground with a shout of pain, but I knew that he wasn't defeated just yet.

Watching as he slowly got up, I knew that I wouldn't be able to fight with my right hand unless I healed it. But that process would take too long.

'_Or would it?_'

Taking a deep breath, I grabbed hold of the spike and yanked it out as hard as I could so it wouldn't hurt as badly. Don't get me wrong; it still hurt enough to make me want to cry, but I concentrated on the water that I'd summoned. Keeping the shield that I'd summoned to protect the di Angelo's and I up, I wrapped a small ring of water around my wrist. It took a few moments, but sure enough, the water began to take its effect. I could feel it attacking the poison in me, and mending the bone as well as the tissue and muscle. After a few minutes, I began to feel better, at least enough to fight Dr. Thorn and not loose too badly.

I pulled Anaklusmos out of my pocket and uncapped it. Holding the blade in my hand, I sent another blast of water at Dr. Thorn (this time in the form of wave) before I allowed all of the water that I'd summoned to fall back into the ocean.

There was another rumble of thunder in the sky, then Thalia stepped into the clearing and rushed into combat.

I don't know if I've told you this before, but when she's fighting, Thalia is arguably the single most terrifying person you will ever meet. You see, Thalia fights in a way that replicates her Father. Firstly, Thalia uses a spear as her main weapon; it's this super terrifying thing that almost seven feet long, with two of these massive points at the top (making it look kinda like a "V") with two other points sticking out from the bottom of those points. But that wasn't all; also like her father, Thalia uses her shield, Aegis, when in battle. It's incredibly sleek and it's made of some sort of crystal, with a bronze head of the gorgon Medusa molded onto it.

Right now, rushing unto battle and her blue eyes bright with malice, she looked like an avenging Angel. Which I guess she kinda was, considering that her dad was Zeus and everything.

Once he saw her shield, Dr. Thorn winced and growled; the aura that she shield projected was that powerful.

Eyes flashing and a dark smile on her face, Thalia moved in. "For Zeus!"

Watching the battle, I thought Dr. Thorn was a goner for sure. Her spear heads crackling with power, Thalia released an arc of electricity that hit Thorn directly in his side. Then, spinning her spear in her hand, Thalia jabbed at the beasts head, but he snarled and swatter her spear aside, roaring in pain as the electricity made contact. His hand changed into an orange paw, with enormous claws that sparked against Thalia's shield as he slashed at her. If it hadn't been for Aegis, Thalia would've been sliced like a loaf of bread. As it was, she was knocked off of her feet and sent flying into the snow.

The sound of the helicopter was getting louder behind me, but I didn't dare look.

Dr. Thorn launched another volley of missiles at Thalia, and this time I could see how he did it. He had a tail—a leathery, scorpion-like tail that bristled with spikes at the tip. The missiles deflected off Aegis, but the force of their impact knocked Thalia down.

He looked like he was about to go in for the kill, and that was when Grover and Katie sprang forward. Katie dropped to her knees and pressed her hand to the ground, while Grover put his reed pipes to his lips and began to play—a frantic jig that sounded like something pirates would dance to. To my amazement, an assortment of roots broke through the snow. Climbing to her feet, Katie pointed a finger at Dr. Thorn, and seconds later weeds as thick as ropes burst out of the ground and warapped around Dr. Thorn's legs, entangling him.

Dr. Thorn let out a furious roar and began to change. He grew larger until he was in his true form—his face still human, but his body that of a huge lion. His leathered, spiky tail whipped deadly thorns in every direction.

"A manticore!" Annabeth said, now visible. She was next to us, stuffing her magical New York Yankees cap into her pocket and pulling out her knife.

"Who are you people?" Bianca di Angelo demanded shrilly. "And what is that?"

"A manticore?" Nico gasped. "He's got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!"

I didn't know what the Hades he was talking about, but I didn't have time to worry about it. The manticore clawed Grover and Katie's magic weeds to shreds then turned toward us with a snarl.

"Get down!" Annabeth shouted, pushing the di Angelos flat into the snow.

At the last second, I remembered my own shield. Jumping in front of them, I hit the button on my wristwatch, and metal plating spiraled out into a thick bronze shield. And not a moment too soon, either. A second after I activated it, a volley of thorns impacted against it with such force they dented the metal. The beautiful shield, a gift from my brother, looked less like a shield and more like a damaged punching bag.

I wasn't sure it would even stop a third volley.

I heard a thwack and a yelp, and Grover and Katie landed next to me with a thud.

"Yield!" the monster roared.

"Never!" Thalia yelled from across the field. With another yell, Thalia shoved her spear towards Thorn and sent out a web of electricity, striking striking Thorn directly in his chest.

Suddenly, I heard a weird sound, a soft vibration of sorts, and the next thing I knew, Dr. Thorn was roaring in pain with a golden arrow shaft planted in his stomach. Then, Will Solace appeared seemingly out of nowhere, his bow notched with another. His hands were shaking, but his face was determined. Taking a deep breath, he quickly drew his arm back and sent the arrow flying, only for Thorn to dodge it.

Cursing, Will continued firing arrows, while Annabeth rushed into the battle with Thalia. Together, the two charged at the Manticore. Taking a deep breath, I stood up and held Anaklusmos forward, just in case any spikes came our way, and deactivated my heavily damaged shield.

I thought that Thalia and Annabeth would have been able to handle the manticore on their own, but the stupid helicopter had to ruin and crush my dreams.

The helicopter appeared out of the mist, hovering just beyond the cliffs. It was a sleek black military-style gunship, with attachments on the sides that looked like laser-guided rockets. The helicopter had to be manned by mortals, but what was it doing here? How could mortals be working with a monster? The searchlights blinded Thalia, and the manticore swatted her away with its tail. Her shield flew off into the snow. Her spear flew in the other direction.

Will quickly fired another arrow at the manticore, managing to strike it in its maine but Dr. Thorn anticipated that and swatted him with one of his paws, sending him flying through the air and crashing into the tree's. His bow flew high in the air and landed at the edge of the cliff-side before skidding off. Will grunted in pain. I knew I couldn't protect them both at once so I charged the manticore.

Dr. Thorn was one hell of a good shooter, I'll give him that much. But I was lucky that I'd learned how to fight against long range enemies while at Camp, otherwise I'd be a goner. I felt like I was fighting like a whirlwind, swatting away the few missiles that I was able to, and dodging the rest of them. My right hand no longer felt sore, and my shoulder was only hurting a bit, the water probably skimming my shoulder to slightly heal it.

"For Poseidon!" I yelled.

Charging at the beast, I thrust Anaklusmos straight at the Manticore's chest. He manged to dodge it, but I spun on my feet, bringing me closer to him, and jabbed at him. It narrowly missed nicking Thorn's skin, but I followed it up with a downwards slash that got him in the shoulder. I was going to go for the kill, but Dr. Thorn roared again and jumped back away from me.

At that very moment, I heard a little noise escape the forest. Sure, it could have been a bug and animal of some sort, but somehow, I knew it wasn't. I'd heard a giggle from inside the forest that was very human-like. It could have been a forest nymph, but that was unlikely. Looking into the forest, I was just able to make out the silhouettes of a group of people, all armed with what I assumed were bows. Suddenly, my conversation with Thalia came back to me.

'_Percy do you know who the Hunters of Artemis are?_'

In that moment, Dr. Thorn took the opportunity to sweep me away with his tail. I flew at least ten feet and landed with a grunt and crack that sounded as painful as Will's.

"Oh, poor boy," Thorn goaded. "You should have known I was much superior to your swordplay."

He advanced on me slowly. "I could have killed you mere seconds ago if you weren't wanted alive. So for that, I shall spare your life. You should know though; your desire to always help your friends will be your downfall, Perseus Jackson."

"Wise words for a coward like yourself," I retorted. "Hiding behind your stupid spikes! Long ranged-weapons are only good if they're use by the right people."

Dr. Thorn growled. "Who are '_the right people'_?"

I glanced back at the forest and could finally see the figures standing in the shadows with bows in their hands. "Them," I told Thorn.

He gave me a confused and angry look. "What are you talking about?!" he demanded.

"Now!" I shouted.

Then I heard a clear, piercing sound: the call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods. The strong sound echoed through the trees, and drowned out the noise of the helicopter's blades.

The manticore froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only the swirl of snow and wind and the chopping of the helicopter blades.

"No." Dr. Thorn said, the smirk vanishing from his face. "Not them. It cannot be—"

His sentence was cut short when a streak of moonlight flew through the trees and shot past me, imbedding itself in Dr. Thorns shoulder.

He staggered backward, wailing in agony.

"Curse you!" Thorn cried. He unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. It almost looked like the arrows had intercepted the thorns in midair and sliced them in two, but my eyes must've been playing tricks on me. There were only a handful of people I knew that had that much accuracy, and they were all children of Apollo.

Then I noticed that the arrows didn't just look silver, but were actually made of it.

The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. I tried to swipe at him with my sword, but he wasn't as injured as he looked. He dodged my attack and slammed his tail into my shield, knocking me aside.

It was then that the archers came from the woods. They were a band of adolescent girls, the youngest around eleven and the oldest couldn't have been older than eighteen, about two dozen in number. They worse silver-white ski parkas and silver jeans, with white snow boots. Despite their young age, I saw that each of them were armed with sleek silver crossbows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions.

"The Hunters!" Annabeth cried, lighting a memory in my head

Next to me, Thalia muttered, "Oh, wonderful."

I didn't have a chance to ask what she meant.

Two of the older archers stepped forward, their crossbows notched with glowing silver arrows and aimed at the Manticore. One of them seemed to be about the same age as me, with pale white skin and deep auburn hair, and a saracastic smile on her face. The second girl was tall and graceful, with skin like copper and dark hair and eyes. Unlike the other girls, the tall one had a silver tiara braided into the top of her long dark hair, so she looked like some kind of Persian princess. "Permission to kill, my lady?"

I couldn't tell who she was talking to, because she kept her eyes on the manticore.

The monster wailed. "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."

"I don't think so, dude." the auburn haired girl said. "Last I checked, Hunting is sort of miladies thing."

"Indeed so, Bella." another girl said. This one was a little older than me, around sixteen or seventeen. She had light brown skin and sleek hair gathered back into a ponytail, and strange glowing eyes. Her face was so beautiful it made me catch my breath, but her expression was stern and dangerous. "The hunting of all wild beasts is within my Sphere of Authority. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at the tall girl with the circlet. "Zoë, permission granted."

The manticore growled. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"

The Manticore looked towards the di Angelo siblings, who were still stepping away from the helicopter, with a frenzied look on his face.

"Run!" I screamed at them.

At that moment everything seemed to slow down, like one of those really intense scenes in an action movie where everything is blowing up around the hero and everything becomes muted. That's what it felt like to me. My own voice seemed far away to me. I could clearly hear my heart beat above the whirring of the helicopter blades, which were now slowly becoming louder as the machine flew further and further away from all the mayhem happening on the cliff top.

My feet started to move before I even realized it. I was running towards the di Angelo siblings as fast as I could, praying to every deity I knew, real or not, that I would reach them before Dr. Thorn did. I was vaguely aware of girls yelling, a mixture of shouts of anger and taunts. Silver arrows, spears and knives whizzed past me as they missed their target, although from Dr. Thorn's cries of pain I figured that some made their mark.

Reaching the di Angelo's I managed to grab onto what I hoped was their arms and practically threw them out of the way of the rampaging manticore. My hands had barely left the brother and sister's arms when I was pushed onto my stomach myself. I only just had enough time to roll over to see Dr. Thorn, carrying some weird lump in his arms, and then Annabeth tackle the Manticore, grabbing onto its back and drive her knife into the beast's mane.

The manticore howled, turning in circles with his tail flailing as Annabeth hung on for dear life.

"Fire!" Zoe ordered.

"No!" Thalia screamed.

But the Hunters didn't listen to Thalia. Instead, they each took aim with their crossbows and let their arrows fly. The first caught the manticore in the neck. Another hit his chest. The manticore staggered backward, wailing, "This is not the end, Huntresses! You shall pay! All of you shall pay!"

And before anyone could react, the monster, with Annabeth still on his back, leaped over the cliff edge and down to the depths below.

My heart stopped. I ran towards the cliff edge planning to throw myself over the side after them. I could hear people yelling, and for a moment I didn't even realize that one of those peoples was me.

"Annabeth! ANNABETH!" I leaped up and ran to the edge of the cliff. I looked down before a _snap-snap-snap_ from the helicopter—the sound of gunfire—made me dive to the side. Bullet holes where I used to be standing appeared in the snow.

Most of the Hunters scattered as tiny holes appeared in the snow at their feet, but the girl with auburn hair just looked up calmly at the helicopter.

"Mortals," she announced, "are not allowed to witness my hunt."

She thrust out her hand, and the helicopter exploded into dust—no, not dust . The black metal dissolved into a flock of birds—ravens, which scattered into the night.

The Hunters advanced on us

"Percy," Thalia warned. "We have to find Annabeth." She gave me a look.

The one called Zoe stopped short when she saw Thalia. "You," she said with distaste.

"Zoë Nightshade." Thalia turned, her voice trembling with anger. "Perfect timing, as usual."

Zoe scanned the rest of us. "Five half-bloods and a satyr, my lady."

"Yes," the younger girl said. "Some of Chiron's campers, I see."

I tiredly shuffled forward, trying to make my way towards Bianca and Nico, only to have my breath catch. It took a minute for it to completely register, but I'd realized that Bianca wasn't with Nico. She was sitting on her knees in the snow, crying her eyes out, screaming for her brother. Suddenly, I remember the lump that I'd saw in Dr. Thorns arms, and I felt all the energy get knocked out of me.

Nico. Dr. Thorn had taken Nico.

"Bianca…" I reached out an arm, only for two Hunters to grab onto my arms roughly and shove me to the ground. I felt myself growing angry and a strange sound rang in my ears. The next thing I knew, I felt the weight of the two Hunters leave my back as a fierce wind blew through the clearing.

Grover looked around desperately, as if the adventure of crashing to the snow made him amnesiac. "Percy? What's happening?"

I looked around at the Hunters, Zoë, and the young auburn-haired girl. "The Hunters are here, Grover."

"Wait, did you say Hunters? Like you mean the Hunters are here, with us?" Grover looked around frantically. His eyes locked on the auburn-haired girl and he asked, "Is that...?"

"Yes, Grover." Thalia rolled her eyes.

I finally tore my eyes from the cliff edge to look at who had spoken, from the group of girls that had appeared way too late for my taste's, one stood out. Despite the silver glow all the girls had, one girl was glowing slightly brighter. The sleek haired girl, who looked to be a couple years older than me, was standing slightly in front of the rest. Dark hair framed a round face, and silvery yellow eyes peered at me, looking almost sympathetic as she took in my appearance. She lent almost casually on her own weapon, a mssive crossbow, although from the stiffness of her stance I knew that if threatened, said weapon would be drawn faster than I could blink.

"Who are you?" I asked finally, my curiosity getting the better of me. The girl smiled.

"How dare you speak to my lady like that boy!" the auburn haired girl from earlier, stepping out of the crowd she leveled her armed crossbow at me, her glare almost sent me running for Tartarus.

"Bella," The girl soothed, placing what I assumed to be a soothing hand on the other girl's arm forcing her to lower her crossbow. "He meant no harm. He is grieving, I'm sure I can cope with _one _act of disrespect in moments like this."

She emphasized the number one and if daring me to try and be rude again, I didn't take the risk. She leveled her moon like eyes at me, making me feel as if she were dissecting every inch of me for every weakness I had.

"I am Artemis, Goddess of the Moon and Hunt," She said finally, her voice now radiating with power. "But you might know me as Cousin."

* * *

**Cloud:** **Hey guys! Here's the next chapter as promised. Considering my reputation when it comes to updating this is actually an accomplishment. It didn't take me a month to post a chapter for a change! You have no idea how proud I am. I'll admit I am a little nervous about this chapter, so if there's anything that need's improving (bedside's grammar and spelling cos' those are a lost cause anyway) let me know because I feel as though I've made the chapter a little bit more dramatic than needed. I kinda brought Percy's feelings to the surface, although he still doesn't realize that he's in love with Annabeth. This isn't going to be a Percabeth story, but I do need for Percy to realize how he feels towards Annabeth in order for this story to work.**

**There aren't any Notes and things for this chapter, but that's mainly because I'm sick. I did however, make a change to the Hunters weaponry, which I will explain in the next chapter. Which I will upload either tomorrow or the day after, so look out for that!**


	4. Artemis and The Hunters

**Story Title:** Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titans Hunt.  
**Chapter Title:** Artemis and the Hunters  
**Author:** Cloud/Silver (CloudyLights SilverNights).  
**Rating:** T  
**Series:** Percy and the Olympians.  
****Word Count:**** 5, 120  
**Contains:** Nothing in this chapter.  
**Beta:** MrsLukeCastellan.  
**Disclaimers:** I don't own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, or any excerpts from Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.  
**Author Note:** Here's the fourth chapter! I'm sorry that it's up so late, I would have had it up sooner, but I ended up catching a flu-like virus that's been going around in my city and got really sick. I also want to apologize if this chapter is too similar to the original version in The Titan's Curse, I struggled with this chapter so I had to borrow a few things directly from the Titans Curse to finish it. Thank you so much to everybody that reviewed and put this story on their favorites list, you have no idea how much it means to me!

* * *

I sat by myself, staring blankly at the bright silver flames. The Hunters had started setting up camp not too long after the incident on cliff and for a group composed of a bunch of adolescent girls, they'd managed set up their camp within a span of a few short minutes. Not that I really cared. Truth be told, I couldn't I couldn't help but be unnerved by Artemis and her Hunters. They'd watched Dr. Thorn jump off of a cliff with Nico di Angelo and Annabeth, and didn't seem bothered by what happened in the least.

I held Annabeth's invisibility cap in my hands along with her Celestial Bronze dagger, refusing to put either objects down for even a second. One of the Hunters, Bella, if I remembered correctly, had handed them to me not long after I had sat down. When I'd asked her about it, she'd just shrugged and claimed that it was "in the way of things". Of what, I'd been to nervous to ask.

Despite how comfortable the Hunters camp was, I felt detached from everything and was uncaring of everything around me. My shoulder was still in pain and it felt as if it were on fire, but I couldn't bring myself to care about even that. All I cared about was the fact that Annabeth was gone, and the utter disbelief I felt about it.

'_It's like a nightmare._' I thought miserably. '_Only this one keeps going, and I can't wake up from it._'

Save for the Hunters and their animals, I was alone in the camp. When the Hunters had first started setting up Camp, Artemis had taken Bianca and Katie with her to talk about something, while sending Grover off into the woods to go get some fire wood and other things, which he was more than enthusiastic about doing. A few yards ahead, I saw Will walking through the snow at the edge of the Campsite, picking arrows off of the ground and plucking them out of tree's. Some feet away from him, Thalia was pacing through the snow, walking boldly amongst Artemis's hounds. Every couple of minutes, she'd stop and look back at Westover Hall, which was now completely dark and void of all light, standing ominously on the hillside of the woods.

A few minutes ago, I'd attempted to talk to her, but all that had happened was the two of us getting into an argument where she'd went on to tell me that all of this was my fault, and I'd left and ended up here. Despite out fight though, I couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking.

About seven years ago, Thalia had ran away from home. While she was living on the streets, she met and befriended Luke, and then Annabeth a while later, and the three of them spent a couple short years together on the run. Later, the three of them met up with Grover and he led them to Camp Half-Blood. Or at least he attempted to.

Grover's my best friend and all, but he isn't exactly the best searcher out there.

Anyways, although Grover did his best to get them to Camp, they were being followed by a large hoard of Monsters. Thalia, not wanting her keep living like an animal and constantly stay on her guard all of the time, stood her ground on top of Half-Blood Hill, where she fought down an army of Monsters in order to give Luke and Annabeth time to escape. She had managed to take down more than half of them, but she had used up all of her energy and had been severely injured. As she was dying, Zeus had turned her into a pine tree, so as to preserve her life. Then, just last summer, her tree had been poisoned and a Quest had been launched to save it, by use of the Golden Fleece.

The Fleece had lived up to it's legend and had healed Thalia's Pine, but it had worked a little too well. It healed not only the tree, but the spirit within the tree as well; it had expelled Thalia from the tree, fully healed and not remembering anything past the day that she had "died". She had only been back as a human for a few months now, and every once in a while, she'd sometimes stand so still and motionlessly that you'd think that she was still a tree.

I was interrupted from my thoughts by the sound of somebody clearing their throat, and when I turned around, it turned out to be one of the Hunters bringing me my backpack.

"Thanks." I said, smiling at her.

That was apparently the wrong thing to do, because the girl glared at me, threw my backpack at me, and stomped away mumbling underneath her breath about stupid boys.

It was also at that moment that Grover had came back from his walk, along with Will. Grover was talking excitedly about something, with Will lagged behind them with a bored expression on his face, only looking up when he caught sight of me.

"Percy, you're bleeding." Grover said once they got to me, bringing my attention to my bleeding shoulder. To be honest, while I knew I was in pain from it, I'd almost forgotten that about it and now that I remembered it, the burning sensation only intensified.

I hissed in pain as I ran a finger around the edge of the wound, grimacing at the sight of the greenish sludge that seemed to be trying to work its way into my body.

"It's green." I said, looking at it. "…Why is it green?"

"It's poisoned." Grover said, while Will helped me take my jacket off without making the wound even worse than it already was. As soon as we managed to get my jacket off, Will sat next to me and helped me make a bigger hole in the shirt so that it would be easier to access the wound.

"I know what you're feeling, Percy." Grover said. "And you're wrong. This isn't your fault, none of it is."

"He's right." Will said, getting out some Ambrosia. "You weren't the one to push Annabeth off the cliff, nor were you the one to push Nico into Dr. Thorns arms."

"Maybe," I sighed. "But I'm the one Annabeth went after."

"That might be true, but Annabeth knew what she was doing, and Nico was trying to protect his sister."

I kept my head down. I knew they were right but still a part of me felt like it could have been stopped if I had been more careful.

"Grover, you got a knife or something sharp?"

Grover gave Will a curious look, but reached into his pants pockets and pulled out a small knife, and handed it to him. Saying a quick "Thanks", Will used it to cut of the rest of my sleeve and then cut the fabric into strips long enough to wrap around my shoulder.

Seeing that Grover was still looking at him, Will sighed. "It was either ask you, or one of the Hunters I figured asking you would be the safer option."

Grover nodded, but even as he did, I noticed him staring at the Hunters (who were currently standing as far away from as they could and giving us looks loathing) longingly.

Rolling his eyes, Will reached into his bag and pulled out a canteen filled with Nectar.

"Hold still, Percy." Will told me. "Eat some Ambrosia while I clean this out."

Will closed his eyes and mumbled something underneath his breath in Ancient Greek. I didn't know what he said exactly, but I saw a flash of gold come from the bottle. Opening his eyes, he poured the Nectar into the wound and began cleaning it out. I'll admit; it hurt at first, but but the square of Ambrosia really helped speed things along. After making sure that the Nectar had been rubbed in completely, Will grabbed one of the strips of cloth and poured a small amount of Nectar onto it.

"Should be fine by the time we get to camp," Will announce, pushing himself off the ground and coming to sit next to me. "But keep an eye on it just in case."

"Does it hurt?" Grover asked concerned.

"A little," I admitted.

"Can you—"

Whatever Grover was going to say got off when somebody from behind us cleared their throat.

I turned around to see one of the Hunters from before; Bella. Her auburn hair was pulled into a tight braid and her hazel eyes stood out against her fair skin. She had a thin silver circlet place atop of her head that shone in the moonlight, a silver glow surrounding her making her look both deadly and beautiful at the same time.

With a start, I realized that she was studying me too, as if she was as unnerved by me, as I was by them. "Lady Artemis wants you." She announced, a blank look on her face.

**_… … … … … … … … …_**

Bella led me to the first tent, a larger one that seemed to glowed with an aura the color of moonlight, and waved me inside. To my surprise, it looked as if I wasn't going to be alone in my talk with the Goddess; sitting within the tent with Artemis was Zoë Nightshade, Katie Gardner, and Bianca di Angelo. Upon seeing me, Katie raised her hand and waved at me.

The inside of the tent was surprisingly huge. It was about the size of one of the Cabins at Camp, and was warm as well as comfortable. Silk rugs and pillows covered the entire floor of the tent, all of them colored silver. In the center was a white brazier of silver flames that seemed to burn without fuel and unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, instead of sparks coming out of the smoke like a regular fire, there were stars coming out instead. On the other side of the brazier was the teenage girl that I still had trouble accepting was actually Artemis. Behind her on a polished wooden display stand, was her silver hunting crossbow and a pair of daggers encased in silver-white sheaths, hanging next to it.

The walls of the tent were hung with the pelts of several different types of animals: Black Bear, White Tigers, Cheetah, and dozens of other ones that I couldn't even recognize, much less name. The more I looked around, the more I saw the pelts of different animals as well as the teeth of other ones. I figured that an Animal Rights Activist probably would've have ended up having a heart attack looking at everything in the tent, but I thought that maybe since Artemis was the Goddess of the Hunt, she could replenish the species of whatever animal she killed. Turning my attention to Artemis, I thought that she had another animal pelt lying next to her, but when I looked closer, I was that it was actually a live animal— it was a huge wolf with glittering silver fur, it's head resting contentedly in Artemis's lap.

"Hello, Perseus Jackson." Artemis said, smiling at me. "Please, join us."

I sat across from her on the tent floor, next to Bianca. Like before, I couldn't help but notice how beautiful Artemis was. She had smooth skin, like caramel, with full lips and a button nose. Her brown hair looked like it'd been recently brushed through, and it fell down her back waves. Unlike Zoë and Bella, she didn't have a tiara on and instead wore a necklace that had a crescent moon hanging on it. The Goddess studied me with her bright eyes, making shift in my seat and become uncomfortable; her eyes were so old and so powerful for such a young girl.

"Are you surprised by my appearance, Perseus?" Artemis asked.

"Um… kind of. It's just…"

"Just…"

"Your eyes." I said after a few moments. "Your eyes are so old for somebody that looks as young as you do. It just makes me kinda of uncomfortable."

Artemis nodded. "I could appear in any form that I so desired to; I could take the form of a grown woman, or a giant hound, or even a simple beam of moonlight, but this is the form that I prefer the most. It is the average age of my Hunters as well as all of the young children I watch over, before they truly go astray."

"'Go astray?'" Bianca asked, speaking up.

"Grow up." Artemis said, sighing. "Become smitten and become silly, preoccupied, and insecure. And eventually forget themselves."

"Oh."

Zoë, who was sitting on Artemis's right next to Bella, glared at me as if everything that Artemis had just said was all my fault. As if I had single-handedly came up with the idea of adolescence, falling in love or lust, and had spread it all across the world.

"You will have to forgive some of my Hunters if they are not so welcome of you, Perseus." Artemis said. "Not all of them have had very positive experience with the more…masculine Genders and don't wish tp have what has happened to them ever repeated. Although not forbidden, it is not often that I allow for Men of any form to have any form of contact with my Hunters. In fact, the last male to see this camp…" she trailed off.

"Aaron. Back when we were in Colorado." Bella said. "You turned him into a Jackalope and had us hunt him down."

"Ah, yes. That's right." Artemis nodded, smiling in satisfaction. "I do enjoy making Jackalopes. At any rate, Perseus Jackson, I have asked you here so that you might tell me more of the encounter your group had with the Manticore. I have spoken with Katherine and Bianca, and Bianca has reported some of the… things that he monster had said. But I do not believe she fully understands exactly what happened tonight. As such, I would like to hear from you."

And so I told her; from when I had arrived with Thalia and Annabeth, to seeing them at the dance, to me running off to save them from Dr. Thorn, them showing up to save me. When I had finished, Artemis had picked up her gear and was running her hand thoughtfully along her crossbow, the silver weapon glowing like moonlight underneath the Goddesses touch.

"I had feared that this would be your answer." Artemis said, grimly.

Bella exchanged a look with Zoë and sat forward, looking troubled. "The scent, Milady?"

"Yes, Arabella. The scent."

Bianca, Katie, and I exchanged looks of confusion.

"Um… what scent?"

"Things are stirring, things that I have not hunted in centuries." Artemis said, getting a faraway look in her eyes. "Prey so old that I have almost forgotten."

She stared at me and I almost shivered at the intensity of the Goddesses gaze. "We came here to Westover sensing the Manticore, but he was not the prey that I was hunting. Not truly. Bianca, Perseus, tell me one last time; what exactly did Dr. Thorn say?"

"Um… 'I hate middle school dances'?"

"No, no." Artemis said, waving her hand. "After that, when you and the di Angelo's were on the cliff. What did he say then?"

"He said that somebody called The General was going to come and explain things."

At the mentioning of The General, Zoë's face paled and her eyes widened. She turned to Artemis to say something, but the Goddess raised her hand, silencing her.

"Go on, Perseus." Artemis said. "What else did he say."

"Well, then Dr. Thorn was talking about this weird thing. Something called the Great Stir Pot—"

"Stirring." Bianca said, correcting. "He said the Great Stirring."

"Yeah. And then he said. 'Soon we shall have the most important Monster of all—the one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus.'"

Artemis became so still, that she could have been a statue.

"Maybe he was just lying, you know? Trying to psych us out." I said, trying to be optimistic.

"No, Perseus. He was telling the truth." Artemis said, shaking her head. "This is my fault; centuries of calmness of years have made me less vigilant and I have been too slow to see the signs that the Great Stirring was among us. I must hunt this Monster down, before it is too late."

Zoë, still pale, looked as if she was trying her hardest not to break down in fear, but she nodded and sat up straight. "We shall leave right away, Milady."

"No Zoë." Artemis said. "This is a hunt that I must do alone."

Bella frowned. "But, Artemis—"

"I have spoken, Arabella. This task is much to dangerous for the Hunters, even for the two of you. Zoë knows where I must start my search. I cannot take either of you with me."

Zoë bit her lip and looked away, while Bella frowned and crossed her arms. It didn't take a genius to see that neither of them were happy with Artemis's choice.

"I shall find this Creature." Artemis vowed. "And I will bring it back to Olympus by the Winter Solstice. It shall be all the proof that I need to convince the Council of Olympus of the danger that we face. And hopefully, it will be enough to make them see that this is the time that we need to band together, as had happened in the Old Days."

"Do you even know what it is that your hunting" I asked her.

"I believe I do." Artemis said, gripping her crossbow tightly. "Let us pray that I am wrong."

"Goddesses can pray?" I asked, because I had never really thought about that before. Like, how would that work out? Who would they pray to?

A smile played across Artemis's lips and her eyes flickered in something akin to recognition and nostalgia. "Before I go, there are somethings that I need to take care of. Perseus Jackson, I have small task for you, if you would so except."

"Does it involve me getting turned into a Jackalope?" I asked, half joking and half serious.

"Sadly, it does not." Artemis said. "Instead, I would like for you and your friends to escort my Hunters back to Camp Half-Blood. They can remain there in safety until I return from my hunt."

"What?!" Zoë blurted out. "But, Artemis, we loathe that place! The last time that we stayed there—"

"Yes, yes, I remember." Artemis said. "But I am sure that my dear baby brother will not hold that big a grudge just because of a little, um, misunderstanding. It is the right of my Huntresses to use Cabin Eight whenever the need arises. Besides, from what my Uncle Poseidon had told me, they rebuilt the Cabins that were burnt down."

"Or you could always threaten Mr. D," Katie suggested, speaking up for the first time sense the meeting started. "Dionysus is lazy, but he understands threatening. He once tried to curse the Hermes Campers when they played a prank on his sons, only for Lord Hermes himself to intervene at the last minute."

"That's right." I nodded. "So I doubt that he'd take a threat from you lightly, Lady Artemis."

Zoë turned around, muttering underneath her breath about damned Campers and that damned Son of Hermes.

"And now for the second thing." Artemis turned to Bianca and Katie. "Have the two of you made up your minds?"

Katie looked down. "I'm still thinking about it."

Bianca nodded. "Me too."

"Wait a minute." I said. "Thinking about what?"

"They… they've invited us to join the Hunt." Katie said. "To become Huntresses."

"W-what? Bianca you can't! You've got to come to Camp Half-Blood so Chiron can train you. It's the only way for Demigods to learn how to survive."

"That may be the case for those of male genders." Zoë said, snidely. "But it is not the only way for women."

I really, truly, could not believe what I was actually hearing. "Bianca." I said, ignoring Zoë. "Camp is awesome! Not only are the other Campers really nice we've also got a Pegasus stable and sword-fighting arena, and so much other amazing stuff! I mean, what do you get by joining the Hunters? Playing double dutch with Zoë? No offense, but I would rather lose a hand than do that."

"Actually." Bella said, glaring at me for that double dutch comment. "There are a lot of advantages that come with being Hunter."

I rolled my eyes. "Such as?"

"Such as Immortality." Zoë said, smugly.

I stared at her, then looked to Bella, and then to Artemis. "Is she really being serious? I mean, she's got to be joking."

"Zoë never jokes about anything." Bella said. "And even if she did, she wouldn't joke about this."

Artemis nodded. "I do no think you fully understand the bond that exist between my Hunters and I, Perseus. You see, my Hunters are more than just a group of adolescents who follow me on my adventures. They are also my best-friends. They are handmaidens, my companions, and my sisters in arms and in oath. Once one of my Hunters swears their loyalty to me, I give them my blessing and they do indeed become immortal, unless they fall in battle, which rarely happens, or they break their Oath to me."

"Oath?" I asked. "What Oath."

"To foreswear all feelings of lust and romanticism for men and those who identify as such." Artemis said. "To leave behind their earthly attachments and to never grow up, and never marry. To remain under my guardianship, and to be a maiden for the rest of their days and instead turn their energy on bettering themselves. And in return, I give them my Blessing. I show them the ways of the Hunt and show them how to become—"

"An eternal maiden, like you?"

Artemis turned away and nodded, her expression pained.

I tried to image what she was saying, I really did. I tried to imagine being immortal and only being able to hang with a bunch of adolescents forever and always. And I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I mean, as cool as it all sounded, I couldn't see myself just abandoning my loved ones and leaving them to be part of an Eternal Girls Club where I would spend the rest of my life hunting down monsters and complaining about boys. For the life of me, I just couldn't.

"So this is what you girls do then? You all just go around the country and recruit Half-Bloods to be part of your Eternal Girls Club, and—"

"We do not just recruit Half-Bloods," Zoë said, interrupting me. "Milady Artemis does not exclude you because of your species. All those who honor Milady are able to join the Hunt and become a Huntress. Whether they be fellow Goddesses, Half-Bloods, Nymphs, or even Mortals. Milady Artemis accepts all girls that makes the choice to swear themselves to her and join the Hunt."

"So which one are you then?" I asked her, irritated. "I doubt your a Mortal, and you don't look like any Half-Blood that I've ever met, so that means that your either a Nymph or a low level Goddess. So what are you?"

Zoë's eyes flashed with anger. "That is not any of thy's concern, wretched boy! The point is that if Bianca so chooses, she may join the Hunt and become a Huntress. It her decision."

"Guys, this is crazy." I said, trying to reason with her. "Think about what you'll be giving up, of who you'll be leaving behind. Katie, you'll never see your brothers or your family again! And Bianca; what about Nico? Barely half an hour ago you were crying when Dr. Thorn took him, but now you're just gonna abandon him like this? In case you've forgotten, Nico's a boy; he can't become a Hunter."

"Certainly not." Artemis said, agreeing with me. "If Nicholas were here, he'd have to go to Camp Half-Blood with you and my sister. Unfortunately for him, that is the best that boys can do."

"Hey!" I protested. "Whats that supposed to mean?!"

"You will be able to see your family from time to time," Artemis said, assuring Bianca and Katie, and ignoring me. "But you will also be free of responsibility of them. Katherine, you will no longer have to take care of an entire Cabin of children, many of whom are the same age as yourself. The same goes for you, Bianca. And you both shall have a new family to take care of you. Us."

"A new family." Katie said.

"Free of responsibility." Bianca said dreamily.

I narrowed my eyes at them and balled my hands into fists. This was really selfish of them, thinking of leaving their family behind like that.

"Guys, you can't do this!" I said. "It isn't right!"

For her part, Bianca looked down. But Katie looked at Bella and Zoë, then looked at Artemis with determination

Katie and Bianca shared a look, and looked from me to Zoë.

"Is it worth it?" Katie asked. "Becoming a Huntress?"

Zoë nodded. "It is."

She sat up straighter. "What do we have to do?"

"Repeat after me." Zoë told her. "I pledge my self to Artemis; Goddess of the Moon and Light, of the Hunt, of Healing and Disease, of Nature and the Animals, and of Children, Maidens, and Chasity."

Katie looked at Bianca, who shook her head in refusal. Sighing, she instead turned to Zoë and repeated the line she gave her.

"I pledge myslef to Artemis; Goddess of the Moon and Light, of the Hunt, of Healing and Disease, of Nature and Animals, and of Children, Maidens, and Chasity.

Zoë turned to Bella, who nodded and said, "I turn my back on the love of Men. I reject the Mortal ties that bind me and accept eternal maidenhood, devoting myself to Artemis and the Hunt.

"I turn my back on the love of Men. I reject the Mortal ties that bind me and accept eternal maidenhood, devoting myself to Artemis and the Hunt.

Bella took a deep breath and gave them the last line. "From here until the End, I walk with my new Sisters and become a Huntress."

Taking a deep breath, Katie repeated the final line.

"That's it?" Katie asked.

Zoë nodded. "If Milady Artemis accepts thy pledge, then she shall give thee her Blessing and then it is binding."

Artemis smiled. "Katherine Brianna Gardener, I accept your Oath and I bind you to my service."

The flames in the brazier suddenly flared to life and illuminated the entire room, creating a flash of light that was so bright that I had shield my eyes. When the light died down, I looked over where Katie and Bianca were sitting. At first nothing looked different, but then when I looked closer at Katie, I noticed she wasn't dressed in the same outfit from earlier. She was decked out in the same silver and white clothes that the rest of the Hunter were wearing, complete with a crossbow at her side and a pair of hunting knives at her waistline.

She looked so different, yet so familiar that I wanted to cry.

"I feel…different." Katie said, taking a deep breath and opening her eyes. "More powerful and…complete."

"That's the Blessing kicking in." Bella said. "You're faster and stronger than you used to be, and your senses are more powerful too. Within a couple months, you'll be a superhuman, even by Demigod standards."

Zoë gave both of them a bright smile and it made her look so different that I almost flinched. "Welcome to the Hunt, new Sisters"

"Remember your Oath, Katherine." Artemis warned. "It is now your life."

I tried to speak, to say congratulations or something, but I couldn't. Watching Katie smile along with Zoë and Bella, I couldn't help but feel like some kind of trespasser and stranger. Not to mention a complete and utter failure. I couldn't believe that I had come all this way and lost Nico di Angelo and Annabeth, only to end up losing Katie to some stupid Eternal Girls Club.

"Do not be sad, Perseus Jackson." Artemis said, gently. "You will stillget to show Bianca di Angelo and the rest of my Hunters to your beloved Camp. And if Bianca does so choose, she will be able to stay there and train to become a Hero."

"Awesome." I said, trying not to sound too bitter or upset. "So how are we supposed to get there? Camp isn't exactly around the corner from here."

Artemis closed her eyes and tilted her head, as if listening to a voice the rest of us in the tent couldn't hear. "Dawn is approaching…Arabella, go tell the Hunters that there has been a change of plans and we must break camp quickly. Zoë, you take Katherine and tell her of our ways. I must get you all Long Island quickly and safely, and unfortunately it looks as if I will have to summon a ride from one of my brothers."

Zoë didn't exactly look really ecstatic about Artemis's command, but she nodded and signaled for Bianca and Katie to follow her. As she was leaving, Katie paused in front of me. "I'm really, really, sorry Percy. But I want this. I want it sooo badly, please try to understand."

"I do." I said, sighing.

She gave me a small smile, and then she was gone and I was left alone with the dark-haired Goddess.

"So," I said, glumly. "We're going to get a ride from one of your brothers, huh? Which one?"

Artemis's regarded me with her strange eyes, before she shook her head. "Not just yet, young Perseus. First, I would like for us talk a bit more."

"About what?" I asked, trying not to sound suspicious. She had already taken one my friends, it wasn't as if she could take anything else.

"Well," Artemis said, slowly as if she was carefully choosing her words. "First off, how are you, Perseus?"

"Excuse me?" Trying not to show how bothered I was by the fact that she kept using my full name.

"A lot has happened this evening," Artemis elaborated. "I heard from one of my girls that you had been injured."

"Yeah, my shoulder," I nodded, flinching as I remembered the green sludge from the poison. "But Will looked at it, I'll be fine."

"And concerning my niece, the daughter of Athena, how are you coping?" She asked gently. "You were quite distraught when she fell."

"You say she and Nico are still alive?" I asked slowly, swallowing thickly as I looked at the Goddess.

Artemis nodded. "I am almost certain of it."

"Then I'll cope."

"Good." Artemis said. "Now, I would also like to ask you some more questions, if you are up for it."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Fire away."

Artemis looked at me with those strange eyes of her. "Tell me, Perseus, what do you think of my Hunters?"

"Are you serious?" I asked, looking at her in surprise. "After what just happened?"

"Yes." Artemis said. "You are hurt right now and that is understandable, but I would like for you to look past that right now, and tell me what you truly think of my Hunters, without the anger you feel right now."

"I… I don't know." I said, honestly. "It's pretty cool, I guess."

"And?"

"And I guess I can understand why Katie would want to join." I said, reluctantly. "It would be pretty great to be able to travel with a group of people that understand you and be free of expectations…" I shook my head. "Why are you asking me this? I'm not a boy, it isn't like I can join and become a Huntress."

Artemis nodded. "That is true. However, I am asking you the questions as a… favor of sorts for my brother, Apollo. You see, Perseus, my brother has recently came up with an idea of sorts. While I myself am not very happy with it, he is being backed by the Olympus Council, who believe Apollo's idea will help us win this War."

"What does that have to do with me?" I asked. "I've never even met Apollo."

"It has everything to do with you." Artemis said. "I cannot tell you everything, Perseus, for it is not my place to do so. What I can say, however, is that you will as the mortals say… make or break my brother's plan."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I just sighed. As if things couldn't get any worse than they already were.

"I also summoned you to inform you of our departure," Artemis continued. "As I told you, My Hunters and yourself shall be leaving with a ride from one of my brothers within the next hour. Dawn is fast approaching and so will your ride."

I shook my head in exasperation, before a thought came to mind. "Your brother… is Apollo the one that's going to give us a ride to Camp?"

"Yes," Artemis said. "Unfortunately I must leave my Hunters in the hands of my womanizing, idiot of a brother who still can't get over the fact that I'm the oldest, and who has yet to learn how to keep it in his pants or the fact that his poems really aren't all that good and the fact that world doesn't revolve around him or his massive ego, or the fact that not every man and woman will fall to his feet. And has yet to realize that despite his claims, he is not a better Archer for we are both the Deities of Archery and that makes both of us even matched!"

I leant as far away from her as possible during her little rant. Her face got redder with every word, I was seriously afraid she would end up hurting me just for being around her Which in this family, was very likely. After a few minutes of tense silence, she stood up.

"Now, I believe we should make our way outside, dawn is approaching and we must pack up camp if we are to be going anywhere."

* * *

**Cloud: I know that I already said this in the Authors Note at the beginning of this chapter, but I am so very sorry guys. I really, truly am. I never planned on taking this long to update but I ended up catching a virus that's been going around my city and haven't had the strength to to really do anything, and when I finally got over it, I got into an argument with my family and ended up getting a really bad case of writers block. Then when I finally overcame that my internet decided to crash every time I tired to update due to there being so many people in the house, so today is really the only day I've been able to log onto my account on the computer. But the chapters up now, so I hope you all wont kill me.**

**I know I ended at a pretty bad place, but I felt like I owed you all a long chapter, and if I had made the chapter any longer I'd have felt guilty for making you all wait even longer for this chapter to be posted, which is why it's probably not all that good. (Sorry about that)**

**Also, just a warning, but like I said when this story started, things will be changing soon. I've got my ideas for this Quest, and it doesn't exactly go along with Rick's version of it. Also, with the characters that I'm using being teenagers, you can expect a lot of swearing. So if anyone is uncomfortable with swearing I apologize in advance. **

**Again guys, sorry for the wait, hopefully it wont happen again and hopefully I'll the next chapter up sooner than this one was.**


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